We Can't Get Our Levels Up High Enough After Adding The Proper Chemical Amounts

I added 3 bags of shock ---waited a day and retested. the water levels were ok range for Total hardness, total chlorine & free chlorine, ph, alkalinity & stabilizer were yellow. No reading !

I added 3 pounds of stabilizer 24 hours ago and 36 ounces of ph up about 8 hours ago. Also put in an algaecide yesterday. As of right now no change from my first readings????

Am I missing something? Pump filters 2500 gallons an hour.

Do I need to wait longer!

Thanks for the question Sam

The first I'd do is to encourage you to get a Taylor FAS-DPD K-2006 pool test kit. This is the best on the market the one most pool professionals use. You're probably using the yellow OTO kit. This is convenient but you want real numbers, accuracy, and either the pool store or the K-2006 kit will give that to you.

Chlorine, CYA (cyanuric acid/stabilizer), pH, Alkalinity, Calcium Hardness, and Metals (iron and copper). It makes troubleshooting much easier and the process of clearing up your pool will go much faster.

You can get this done at your local pool store. Without these numbers I'm just guessing at what the problem is. I really can't say with much certainty when a question says the chemicals levels are "ok".

According to the question, you put in 3 lbs. of stabilizer (CYA) and your pool is 24 x 5. To raise the level of the CYA 9ppm and shock, you'd use 3 1/3 lbs. for a 20,000 gallon pool. Yours is around 13,000 gallons. You might be putting in too much CYA. If this is the case your only recourse is to do a partial drain and refill. There's no chemical that can take out CYA. Again, this is only a guess because I don't have the chemical numbers.

You want to keep the CYA between 30 - 50ppm and the chlorine between 1.5 - 3.5ppm. If the CYA and chlorine are low, you can use Dichlor. This is a stabilized form of chlorine that with both chlorinate the pool and put CYA in it.

Be careful when using Dichlor as it can get out of hand quickly. For every 10ppm of chlorine added with Dichlor, you'll raise the CYA by 9ppm. For every 10ppm of chlorine added with Trichlor tabs you'll raise the CYA by 6ppm.

Also, I would recommend using sodium bicarb instead of pH or alkalinity up. If you look at the ingredients, it probably says bicarb. This is nothing but baking soda and can be purchased for about 1/3 the price at your local grocery store.